Super Mario Land

Mario's first Game Boy adventure arrives on 3DS. Go ahead. Hum along with the music.

It's somewhat fitting that the game which kicked off the whole Game Boy era for Nintendo should be present at the opening of the eStore. Woo hoo!

As any Nintendo veteran will know, it was incredible at the time to have a fully-fledged Mario title on a handheld machine. Super Mario Land arrived in 1989, remember, only a few years after Game & Watch, and it was as good as handheld gaming got.

Even its monochrome visuals didn't dampen the enthusiasm, mainly because the faithfulness to the NES-style gameplay was so strong. And then there were those whistle-along tunes.

But Gunpei Yokoi's take on Mario was also a pretty brief affair, with just 12 relatively compact levels spread across the four worlds. Even average players could probably romp through it inside an hour.

For the completist, this is a chance to see what cutting edge handheld platforming looked like in the eighties. Those wanting the real deal would be better off holding out for Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, or the inevitable point when Nintendo starts issuing 3D ports of its NES and SNES classics.